McInerney, Jay. RANSOM. (1985) *****.tThis was the author’s second novel, and came out as a paperback original. It is the story of Chris Ransom, a young man who is trying to escape from his father in America and create a life for himself. He is in Japan, in Kyoto, studying karate, and interacting with a few of the other gaijin in the neighborhood. His steady job, like most other Americans in Japan without a profession, is teaching English to groups of young salarymen who expect that they will need the language on rising within their companies. Ransom has the highest hopes of reaching the pinnacle within his karate dojo, and has selected one that has a reputation for toughness. He is a very level-headed guy and supports his other English-speaking friends through their ordeals in a strange country. He has a fairly good grasp of the Japanese language, but, face it, he can’t disguise the fact that he is not Japanese. He is involved – as a close friend – with a woman named Marilyn. Marilyn – an Englishized version of her Vietnamese name, Mai Lin – has no papers, and is being harassed by a member of one of the jakuzi gangs. He also has a friend named Miles Ryder, another American, who has started up two businesses in Kyoto: “Buffalo Roam,” and “Hormone Derange,” the first being a country-western clothing store, the second a western-style saloon. Miles is married to a Japanese girl and is close to becoming a first-time father. The adventures that occur in Ransom’s life are complicated by a man named De Vito, who for some odd reason has developed a hatred for Chris and is continually calling him out to fight. Some basic driving elements are missing from the plot, but they seem not to be of importance. Spending time with Ransom and his friends is fascinating. The reader is sucked into his world and travels with him and his friends over a period of several months. The dialog is witty, and, often hilarious. The gap in the two societies is highlighted by the hilarious mistakes in both languages and in the dimly understood differences in the two cultures. This is a novel that the reader will not be able to put down. Highly recommended.
I've read and re-read this book many times. Every time, I feel that I am right there beside Ransom in Japan, walking past cherry blossom trees, sweeping tatami mats, tasting sake and blocking karate punches. If you are looking for a novel that you'll start reading and forget about everything else, this is it. It's a nearly flawless novel and in my opinion, McInerney's best. Ransom is an American living in Japan and learning karate. To pay the bills, Ransom works for a Japanese advertising agency during the day and at night, teaches English to Japanese students. His advertising bosses are often offended by his 'western' corrections to hilarious Japanese copy that does not translate to English well. His Japanese students sit utterly baffled in his English classes night after night and complain about him constantly when he isn't there. With every second of spare time he has left over, Ransom attends gruelling karate classes under a sensei who humiliated him for weeks before even agreeing to teach him. Ramsom is getting better, his sensei says, but he's still not very good. He does too many weights - he still walks like a 'gaijin', he says. He can show Ransom the moves but he cannot, he explains, show Ransom how to see. Unfortunately, Ransom also has made himself an enemy in the violent and sociopathic DeVito, another American student of karate, who suffice to say, underestimates Ransom enormously.Ransom doesn't understand the Japanese - they don't understand him either - but he admires the Japanese world of calm resignation and discipline. He is desperately trying to transform himself in Japan and we soon suspect that he is punishing himself too. Ramsom is determined to forget his past, for tragic reasons that are revealed. I wish I could read it again for the first time. Enjoy.
What do You think about Ransom (Bloomsbury Paperbacks) (2015)?
This novel did fall prey to the sophomore slump, as far as McInerney was trying to distance himself from his first novel. The humor is still there, and I enjoyed the balance he made of the divide in Japan between the past and the modern, if there is anything wrong with the novel - it is that too much reliance is put onto the mysterious.The last third of the book is a twist, but not an unfair one. I wouldn't say there were hints as to what was coming but I don't think any of the characters acted out of bounds of their behavior.I would agree though, that only big fans of McInerney's work should read this novel as he has better to offer.
—Myles
I first read this book when I was in Japan in 1989 and marveled then at Mcinerney’s use of language and his deft delineation of character. Over the years the book stayed with me, not least because of its peculiarly painful plot twists and its unique setting.Twenty-two years later the book has lost some of its charm and McInerney’s use of language is less innovative, but the story of a heartbroken young American seeking redemption through self-discipline in a Japanese karate dojo in Kyoto in 1984 is still compelling. Ransom has had a traumatic experience in Pakistan and is full of loathing for his father’s selfish TV business and the materialism of America. He is determined to become a karate master and has made enough progress in two years to impress his teachers and his colleagues. Suddenly things change with the appearance of Marilyn, a Vietnamese refugee who needs his help to avoid being sold into prostitution, and DeVito, a deranged ex-marine who wants Ransom to fight him. This book deviates in many ways from McInerney’s usual themes: wealthy yuppies mesmerized by sex and drugs, their lives centered around viciously attacking each other. The description of Ransom’s karate classes and the city of Kyoto are so vivid that the author must have based these on personal experience.The book was not a success (not even enough to get a Wikipedia entry) and most of my friends didn’t care for it, but I wish that McInerney had written more in this style.
—Cameron
It's not a full 5, but neither 4, so I rounded up to 5 :D It's incredible how this book reminded me not of 1, not 2, but 3 books I read and enjoyed: with the Japanese atmosphere, Yakuza, illegal emigrants prostituting themselves, strange strangers with a taste for violence and death, and the solitary main character reminded me of Murakami's After Dark and Ryū Murakami's In the Miso Soup. While with the situation of gaijins in Japan and the drug story, of Karl Taro Greenfeld's Standard Deviations. But that doesn't mean this book was less original, it even managed to surprise me with the final(ok i admit i cheated and read the last line when I was in the middle of it, and i felt so sad, of all the possible endings I didn't anticipated that). Same style of the Bright Lights, Big City, but this time a book in the 3rd person, even if at times the story seamed to turned to the point of view of the character and that was a little confusing(I especially hated the dialog in the 3rd person).So far Jay McInerney didn't let me down, so I'll try another book of his!
—Catalina
